A pioneering Japanese-English simultaneous interpreter will entertain and enlighten you with the tales of some delightful events where humor has successfully transcended cultural barriers, or some embarrassing ones when the speakers and/or interpreters fell flat on their face. A product of the U.S. occupation of Japan and American tax-payers money later, Muramatsu has served countless international conferences and encounters by any other name, including the first nine G-7 Summit meetings of heads of state and government. (The first, in 1975, at Rambouillet, was G-6; guess who wasn't invited to the dinner.) Meticulously avoiding divulging any state secret or materials for tabloids, he has written essays, books, and given lectures on fascinating episodes that make us laugh and then think the tricks in breaking linguistic and cultural barriers. Born in Tokyo in 1930; worked first as a clerk-typist and then as an interpreter for the U.S. military in Tokyo 1946 through 1955; trained as one of the first eight Japanese simultaneous interpreters by the U.S. State Department, serving some thirty Japanese productivity study teams that toured the U.S. 1956-1960. Tried a new career as an economic researcher with the U.S.-Japan Economic Council in Washington, DC predecessor to the Japan Economic Institute of America). Went back to professional interpreting by returning to Japan in 1965, relinquishing his green card, and established Simul International, Inc., the first professional organization of, by and for interpreters in Japan. After 33 years as its president, then chairman, and also president of the Simul Academy, semi-retired into an advisory, albeit full-time, status in 1998. His clients include Pres. Reagan, Pres. Kennedy, Sen. Kennedy, Professors Milton Friedman, Paul Samuelson, John Kenneth Galbraith, Peter Drucker,Japanese prime ministers from Tanaka to Nakasone, India's Prime Minister Rajif Gandhi, Britain's Prince Charles, Jeffrey Archer, Arthur C. Clarke, Ralph Nader, Betty Friedan, and Yasser Arafat.

Pieter P. Bottelier recently completed a 28-year tenure at the World Bank. He served in various senior managerial and advisory capacities for programs in Asia, Africa and Latin America. His most recent positions were, until December l998, Senior Advisor to the Vice President, East Asia and Pacific Region, and Chief of the World Bank's Resident Mission in Beijing (1993-97). He now teaches at the School for Advanced International Studies (SAIS) of Johns Hopkins University, and is associated with the Center for Strategic International Studies in Washington DC. He is the author of many articles on China. He studied economics and banking at the University of Amsterdam and at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Youth labor markets in most OECD countries were in disarray by the end of the 1990s. Japan was no exception. Some observers have claimed that Japan's highly institutionalized school-work system, involving close linkages between high schools and employers, has efficiently matched young people to jobs and has helped keep youth unemployment rates low. How is this changing, in the face of Japan's recession as well as structural changes in the labor market? My research examines the role of the school-work system and the pressures the system currently faces. Mary C. Brinton is Professor of Sociology at Cornell University, where she moved in 1998 after teaching at the University of Chicago for 13 years. Her principal interests are in social and economic change in contemporary Japan, the comparative study of labor markets, gender inequality, and the analysis of educational systems. Recent publications include Women and the Economic Miracle: Gender and Work in Postwar Japan (University of California Press, 1993), "Married Women's Labor in Rapidly Industrializing Economies: Examples from East Asia" (with Yean-Ju Lee and William Parish), American Journal of Sociology 93, 1 (1995), and The New Institutionalism in Sociology (edited with Victor Nee; Russell Sage Foundation, 1998). Her current work focuses on how institutions intervene in the Japanese youth labor market.

Zi Zhongyun is one of China's leading scholars on international relations. She is the author of The Origin and Evolution of U.S. Policy Towards China, 1945-1950; On the Shore of the Sea of Learning; Forty Years of U.S.-Taiwan Relations, 1949-1989; and the forthcoming Looking at the World with Cold Eyes: Revelations of the Ups and Downs in the 20th Century. Her edited volumes include, A History of Postwar U.S. Foreign Relations, from Truman to Reagan; Building up a Bridge of Understanding: American Studies in China, 1979-1992; and Initial Contributions to Theories on International Politics in China. She has served as Director of the Institute of American Studies, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Editor-in-chief of the Journal of American Studies in China, and was the Founder & first President of the Society for Chinese Scholars of Sino-American Relations. Madame Zi was also Visiting Fellow, Institute of International Studies, Princeton University, and Fellow, Woodrow Wilson Center, Washington, D.C.

Trinitron color TV, the Walkman, the CD. Sony, the company responsible for these and countless other products, has set the standard for consumer electronics. The Japanese company has also become the brand name best known and most highly esteemed by Americans. But how much do we really know about Sony, the company? For the first time in any language, John Nathan takes us behind the scenes at Sony in his groundbreaking book, SONY: The Private Life (Houghton Mifflin; Sept. 28, 1999). Nathan gives us a rare inside look at the makings and workings of this modern business wonder. He portrays the remarkable individuals who built the company as well as the interpersonal relationships that have shaped it. John Nathan has been engaged with Japan for forty years and has been accused more than once of thinking like a Japanese. In 1963, he entered the Department of Japanese Literature and linguistics as the first American to be admitted as a regular student at Tokyo University. In 1964, he published the first of many translations for Yukio Mishima's The Sailor Who Fell From Grace with the Sea. In 1967, he introduced Kenzaburo Oe to Western readers with his translation of A Personal Matter. Nathan returned to Japan in 1972 to write and co-direct, with Hiroshi Teshigahara, a feature film about American deserters from Vietnam in the Japanese peace underground. In 1974, Nathan received his Ph.D. from Harvard and published, Mishima: A Biography. Thereafter, Nathan devoted himself to making films. He has since written and produced forty documentaries. In 1994, Nathan became the first Takashima Professor Japanese Cultural Studies at U.C. Santa Barbara. Currently, he teaches courses on Japanese film and literature, consults for Japanese and Asian corporations, and continues to translate Japan's Nobel Laureate in Literature for 1994, Kenzaburo Oe.